Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!

by Robert T. Kiyosaki

“The rich don’t work for money.”

“Savers are losers.”

“Your house is not an asset.”

“The love of money is the root of all evil.”

“The lack of money is the root of all evil.”

the subject of money is taught at home, not in school.

what can poor parents tell their child about money? They simply say, “Stay in school and study hard.” The child may graduate with excellent grades, but with a poor person’s financial programming and mindset.

“How can I afford it?”

“My brain gets stronger every day because I exercise it. The stronger it gets, the more money I can make.”

“But that is not how life teaches you, and I would say that life is the best teacher of all. Most of the time, life does not talk to you. It just sort of pushes you around. Each push is life saying, ‘Wake up. There’s something I want you to learn.’”

“Life pushes all of us around. Some people give up and others fight. A few learn the lesson and move on. They welcome life pushing them around. To these few people, it means they need and want to learn something. They learn and move on. Most quit, and a few like you fight.”

if you’re the kind of person who has no guts, you just give up every time life pushes you. If you’re that kind of person, you’ll live all your life playing it safe, doing the right things, saving yourself for some event that never happens. Then you die a boring old man. You’ll have lots of friends who really like you because you were such a nice hardworking guy. But the truth is that you let life push you into submission. Deep down you were terrified of taking risks. You really wanted to win, but the fear of losing was greater than the excitement of winning. Deep inside, you and only you will know you didn’t go for it. You chose to play it safe.”

it’s fear that keeps most people working at a job: the fear of not paying their bills, the fear of being fired, the fear of not having enough money, and the fear of starting over. That’s the price of studying to learn a profession or trade, and then working for money. Most people become a slave to money—and then get angry at their boss.”

People’s lives are forever controlled by two emotions: fear and greed.

If you don’t first handle fear and desire, and you get rich, you’ll only be a highly paid slave.”

We only memorize historical dates and names, not the lesson.”

Most people are too afraid to rationally think things through and instead run out the door to a job they hate.

A job is only a short-term solution to a long-term problem.

It’s like planting a tree. You water it for years, and then one day it doesn’t need you anymore.

Mind your own business. Financial struggle is often directly the result of people working all their lives for someone else. Many people will simply have nothing at the end of their working days to show for their efforts.

But there is a big difference between your profession and your business. Often I ask people, “What is your business?” And they will say, “Oh, I’m a banker.” Then I ask them if they own the bank. And they usually respond, “No, I work there.” In that instance, they have confused their profession with their business. Their profession may be a banker, but they still need their own business.

Financial struggle is often the result of people working all their lives for someone else.

Life is sometimes tough when you do not fit the standard profile.

Often in the real world, it’s not the smart who get ahead, but the bold.

If you are the kind of person who is waiting for the right thing to happen, you might wait for a long time. It’s like waiting for all the traffic lights to be green for five miles before you’ll start your trip.

I’d rather welcome change than cling to the past.

The problem with “secure” investments is that they are often sanitized, that is, made so safe that the gains are less.

An example of how fast gains can be made is 100,000 shares purchased for 25 cents each before the company goes public. Six months later, the company is listed, and the 100,000 shares now are worth $2 each. If the company is well managed, the price keeps going up, and the stock may go to $20 or more per share. There are years when our $25,000 has gone to a million in less than a year.

Great opportunities are not seen with your eyes. They are seen with your mind.

Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. But have fun.

Most people never win because they’re more afraid of losing. That is why I found school so silly. In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.

Unfortunately, the main reason most people are not rich is because they are terrified of losing. Winners are not afraid of losing. But losers are. Failure is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

It is what you know that is your greatest wealth. It is what you do not know that is your greatest risk.

There is always risk, so learn to manage risk instead of avoiding it.

“Workers work hard enough to not be fired, and owners pay just enough so that workers won’t quit.”

Just as the rich can afford better education, the rich will be able to keep themselves alive, while those who have little wealth will die.

Life is much like going to the gym. The most painful part is deciding to go.

the more specialized you become, the more you are trapped and dependent on that specialty.

“What I like best is the Texas attitude. They’re proud when they win, and they brag when they lose. Texans have a saying, ‘If you’re going to go broke, go big.’ You don’t want to admit you went broke over a duplex.”

“Everyone wants to go to heaven, but no one wants to die.”

But playing it safe and balanced on your investment portfolio is not the way successful investors play the game.

Balanced people go nowhere. They stay in one spot. To make progress, you must first go unbalanced. Just look at how you make progress walking.

Put a lot of your eggs in a few baskets and FOCUS: Follow One Course Until Successful.

Busy people are often the most lazy.

they stay busy as a way of avoiding something they do not want to face. Nobody has to tell them. Deep down they know. In fact, if you remind them, they often respond with anger or irritation.

“Do what you feel in your heart to be right—for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.”